Bottled Up
by ElliotJA
Summary: The TARDIS lands the Doctor and her friends in ninth century Constantinople, where the Doctor finds herself unexpectedly reminded of a past encounter with a great force of evil...
1. Chapter 1

"Constantinople!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly as she stepped out of the TARDIS into an alley, the sun shining brightly in the blue sky above. "Capital of the Byzantine Empire! I always know it!"

"So it ain't had its' name changed to Istanbul yet then, eh, Doc?" asked Graham O'Brien as he emerged from the TARDIS behind her, followed by Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin 'Yaz' Khan.

The Doctor licked the index finger of her right hand and held it out in front of her. "Hmm...definitely ninth century AD...so about six hundred years before the Ottoman conquest and change of name, which weren't the first, by the way. I were here when it were called Byzantium!"

"Bet you were right there for that, Doctor?" Ryan asked. "The Ottoman invasion, I mean."

The Doctor nodded. "Right in the thick of it, Ryan. I'm telling you though, it would've been a lot worse if I hadn't managed to see off those Rutans first. Still, nothing to be worried about at the moment...I think." Ryan and Yaz exchanged silent looks, both aware that when the Doctor brought them anywhere, there was rarely nothing to worry about awaiting them...not that they always minded.

As the four of them walked up the alley the TARDIS had materialized in, the sounds of a busy street grew louder, and they soon found them themselves amid throngs of people walking this way and that, while others peered at the goods displayed in stalls from which vendours shouted to entice yet more customers. "Looks like market day," Yaz remarked.

"It's certainly bustling," Graham said.

Yaz eyed the food and gold and silver trinkets and jewelry on sale. "Fancy doing some shopping, Doctor?" she asked, turning to the group leader...to find the Doctor had stopped dead in her tracks, a chilled look on her face as she stared at something ahead of them.

"Doc?" Graham said. "Doctor, what is it?"

Instead of replying, the Doctor walked forward, rapidly, towards a table outside a street tavern where a man sat with a small pile of various items before him, examining what appeared to be a normal - albeit rather old-looking - flask he held in his hands. As the Doctor's shadow fell over him, he lifted his head to squint curiously at her. "Something ails you, my lady?" he asked.

The Doctor stretched out a finger to point at the flask. "Where'd you get that?" Her voice was urgent.

"This?" The man peered at the flask. "Why, it was among the artifacts I purchased earlier today. Some are said to have been held in the imperial vaults for centuries. I am a merchant, you see. I plan on taking these with me into Europe to sell. Items from the exotic east - particularly those of great age - fetch a very good price there. Though I have no idea what could be in this flask. The cork appears to be stuck, I cannot remove it..."

"Don't!" The Doctor almost shouted the word, causing the merchant to flinch, his expression now one of sheer bewilderment.

He was not alone in his feelings either. Graham, Ryan and Yaz were looking at the Doctor with concern now. "Doctor, what's going on?" Ryan asked. "What's so important about that bottle?"


	2. Chapter 2

The sun, bloated and lurid in the purpling sky, finally slipped into hiding behind the sand dunes, casting the desert into a haunted night, and still the solitary figure of the man walked casually across the sand, the long scarf worn around his neck trailing all the way to his boots. As he walked along, a slight wind ruffling his dark, curly mass of hair, the man whistled a tune. It was a tune no one else on this world would know for many centuries yet, called 'Goodnight, Sweetheart.' He stopped suddenly, looked around, muttered "This looks a good enough spot", and sat down cross-legged on a rug he had brought with him. He laid a large wooden box he had also brought with him at his side, activated a small portable heat/light generator he fished out of his coat pocket, and waited, his eyes closed.

Eventually he opened them to see that he was no longer alone in the benighted wilderness, though he had already known this for a while. Moving his gaze past the legs of the figure stood in front of him, hidden by tattered swirls of robe, he looked upward at a dead, bearded face from which burned two hellishly evil green eyes like demon fires. Seeing this, the man on the rug grinned, and said "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Would you like to play a game?"

The voice that issued from the newcomer through dead lips was harsh and cold as the void between galaxies, and stung with malice. "What is this? Do the people of this pathetically primitive land mock me? Do you have any perception of what you now face?"

"Mock you?" the Doctor exclaimed. "Now who would want to do that, eh? And yes, I know precisely who and what you are, Abu-Fenran...that is what you're called nowadays, isn't it? I've met other beings like you...the Celestial Toymaker, the Great Intelligence...I'm not of this world myself, you see. Ever hear of a place called Gallifrey?"

Abu-Fenran hissed, his eyes seeming to glow brighter with excitement. "Can it be? Do I truly face a Time Lord? How fortuitous this is. No doubt you seek to protect the inhabitants of this world from me. The prospect of defeating a being of such power and intellect..."

"You can't resist it, can you?" the Doctor said. At this, he opened up the box at his side and withdrew a chess board, which he lay on the sand between himself and Abu-Fenran. As he began laying out the chess pieces, he continued talking: "Carved these pieces myself, from bones picked up in the late Cretaceous. A lot of bones lying about then." Now he looked up at Abu-Fenran. "I really ought to warn you, I'm a champion at this game. Came second six times at the Pan-Galactic All-Forms Chess Tournament. Are you still willing to take me on? The loser has to vacate this world."

Abu-Fenran sneered at the Doctor's grin. "I could so easily just obliterate you here and now, Time Lord...but no. We will play your game..."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Sarah Jane Smith was dragged out of a fitful sleep by an insistant rubbing of her shoulder, and a female voice excitedly saying "Sarah Jane" You must wake up!" Rolling over on the softly cushioned bed, Sarah saw Zeleekha, the servant girl in the king's palace, leaning over her in the light of the newly risen sun. "Come quick," Zeleekha was saying, "The Doctor - he has returned!"

Hearing this, Sarah was instantly on her feet, running after Zeleekha through the palace hallways. It had been days since the Doctor had gone off alone into the desert, and she had begun to fear the worst. "Doctor!" she cried out in joy and relief the moment she entered the main hall and saw her friend surrounded by the smiling, laughing king and his courtiers.

"Sarah!" the Doctor said as she rushed into his arms, then looked at her with his usual big grin. "I was just going to enquire about you. Have you been alright?"

"Scared out of my wits for you!" Sarah replied indignantly. "What happened out there? That creature..."

"Oh, I don't think we need worry about him for a while," said the Doctor as he held up a sealed flask in his hand. "Not now he's safely bottled up!"

Sarah gasped in amazement at the flask. "You mean you trapped that thing in there? Like a genie? But...how?"

The Doctor held a finger to his lips. "Shhh...some secrets a Time Lord must always keep."

 _ **Author's note: Yes, this is indeed a prequel to the television story**_ **The Curse of Fenric.** _ **In writing this, I've tried my best to be consistent with the prose novelisation of the TV story, particularly in regards to the name Fenric was known by in the distant past, and also with the character of Zeleekha.**_


End file.
